1. Why is Fortis losing market share?Because Fortis has been facing strong competition since 2002. Other players initiated price war and Fortis refused to continuously cut its price, which caused Fortis to lose market share to its competitors. 2. What is Fortis's current marketing strategy?

Fortis emphasizes value-added service to customers. The company was unwilling to use price weapon but provides specialized service and equipment to meet unique strapping needs. Their marketing strategy focuses on customer price sensitivity and its relationship to the service component of Fortis's value-added system. 3. What is the significance of Exhibit 8?

The chart put together customer price sensitivity and the service cost of Fortis. Each location of point reveals the characteristic of a single customer regarding the magnitude of difficulty to meet its requirement. The upper-left customers are the best ones who provide highest value to Fortis while the lower-right customers are the worst ones. The upper-right and lower-left customers are average customers but have different preferences between price and service. With the analysis from Exhibit 8, Fortis can classify its customers and exert different strategies to deal with different customers. The benefit to Fortis is that they may further understand customers’ characteristics and requirements, thus optimizing their resource allocation and increasing customer satisfaction. 4. What should George Reynolds do?

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CaseAnalysis: Apple, Inc. (Case Study)
Unit 1
Rolf Vonderheide
Kaplan University
GB520 Strategic Human Resource Management
Professor Steven Cates
November 11, 2014
Introduction
The purpose of this caseanalysis is to answer the following question as it relates to Apple, Inc. “What is strategic management and why is it crucial to the success of an organization in meeting its goals and mission?” Strategic Management refers to the set of decisions and actions used to formulate and implement strategies that will provide a competitively superior fit between an organization and its environment so as to achieve organizational goals (Daft, 2014). In other words, strategic management is what an organization needs to do to thrive—and not just survive. It also involves taking the long-view in conjunction with the near and present view. As this case study has pointed out, Apple, or more specifically Steve Jobs, was an expert at peering into the future while also providing products that met current consumer wants and needs.
Background
Apple was created in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Woziniak. Jobs made it Apple’s mission to bring an easy to use consumer computer to market and in 1978, launched the Apple II. Apple quickly became the industry leader selling 100,000 Apple IIs by the end of 1980 (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). Things changed drastically for them...

...recommendations regarding the potential use of information technology for strategic advantage.
Sunflower Inc. is a large distribution company that purchases and distributes snack foods and liquor to retail stores throughout the United States and Canada. The organization has one head office and twenty-two regions. Each region is encouraged to be autonomous to accommodate local tastes and practices. Competition is very intense in the industry and SunflowerInc. is unable to respond to market shifts. The organization is characterized as a bureaucracy in the formalization stage of the organizational life cycle. According to the textbook, the formalization stage involves the installation and use of rules, procedures, and control systems. During the current stage of the organization’s life cycle and to improve its technology, increasing profits, and standardizing business tasks, a standardized financial reporting system is implemented that compared sales, costs, and profits across company regions. Each region was a profit center and the system showed that profits varied extensively. Top management decided that standardization was necessary and initiated its pricing and purchasing practices to be formalized. The company faced the challenge of how to restructure to survive the competition and how to do this while functioning as both a large and small company. Joe Steelman, president of Sunflower, Inc., hired Loretta...

...484). Consequently a company must plan strategies that address any changes in the market. ebay Inc. is the world’s largest and most popular person-to-person trading community on the internet (Bradley, 2001, p. 1). From its inception eBay was unchallenged however with amazon.com’s (Amazon) entrance into the online person-to-person auction arena and other competition from Yahoo! Auctions, Auction Universe, and OnSale, eBay was faced with the issue of how to separate themselves from competitors and maintain market leadership in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Michael Porter stated that value is what buyers are willing to pay, and superior value stems from providing unique benefits that more than offset a higher price. There are two basic types of competitive advantage: cost leadership and differentiation (Porter, 1985, p. 3). Attempting to compete based on cost would be a poor move for eBay. Their competitors already offer both lower costs and many offer similar services at no cost at all. Therefore, eBay must be able to differentiate themselves from their competitors in order to maintain market leadership. Differentiation is the act of designing a set of meaningful differences to distinguish the company’s offerings from competitor’s offerings (Kotler, 2001, p. 90). eBay needs to focus on creating a product or service that is perceived as being unique throughout the industry.
Services are extremely difficult to differentiate...

...Omowumi Aiyeku
Professor Andrew Klein
Strategic Human Resources Management
September 5, 2011
CaseAnalysis Question: What is Strategic Human Resources Management and how does it link the people with the strategic needs of the business?
Introduction
Human resource management is a combination of strategically coordinated efforts to manage people. Managing people involves, employing them, teaching and developing their skills, and utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services (Mello, 2010). In most cases the strategic method of human resource management would provide greater support but, in the case of Infosys, strategic human resource management provided a collection of smoke and mirrors which clearly hid the true feelings of the employees. The typical strategic management plan involves support for the organization with its efforts to align its functions with business objectives, creating a great work environment and recognition of the human skill as an asset (Becker & Huselid, 2006).
Strategic Human Resource Management vs. Traditional
The fundamental significance of Strategic Human Resource management (SHRM) is its focus on the human capital component of organizational success (Mello, 2010). SHRM differs from traditional HR management in that SHRM focuses on the entire organization rather than the individual in two main aspects of business. The first differing aspect is SHRM focuses on...

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1. What are the advantages Blades could gain from importing from and/or exporting to a foreign country such as Thailand? Ans: The advantages Blades could gain from importing from and/or exporting to Thailand could be Decrease their cost of goods sold, and increase Blades’ net income since rubber and plastic are cheaper when imported from a foreign country such as Thailand. Due to its superior production process Thai firms could not duplicate the high-quality production process , so establishing a subsidiary in Thailand would preserve blade sales before Thai competitors. Allow Blades to explore the option of exporting to Thailand by building relationships with some local suppliers. As far as exporting is concerned, Blades could become the first firm to seller roller Blades in Thailand. Diversify their investment by opening option to export to other countries beyond Thailand to ensure company sustainability.
2. What are some of the disadvantages Blades could face as a result of foreign trade in the short run? In the long run?
Ans: The disadvantages Blades could face as a result of foreign trade in the short run are: Exchange rate risk. Blades would be exposed to currency fluctuation in the Thai baht if importation cost increase without Thai suppliers adjusting their price. International economic condition; if Thailand’s economy undergoes recession, Blades would suffer from sales decrease in Thailand. In the long run,...

...Cooper Industries’ Corporate Strategy
CaseAnalysis
Company Vision
The vision of Cooper Industries, as stated in the case, was to do an ‘outstanding job at the unglamorous part by making necessary products of exceptional quality.’ The goal was to operate in industries that had become somewhat of a necessity for consumers. Examples of such industries include: power transmission, hand tools, drilling and others. Cooper industries had started in 1833, as an iron foundry, and had existed most of its 150 years as a small sized maker of engines and compressors. However, all this changed in the 1960s, when the management decided to expand the company to lessen its dependence on the capital expenditures of the cyclical natural gas business.
Company Mission
Starting from the late 1950’s Cooper began a process of diversification in order to assure continued sustainability as a profitable company. As a multi-business, Cooper Industries’ sole objective must be “to achieve higher financial performance than its units would attain if they were independent.”
By extension, the goal was to grow Cooper industries as a corporation through diversification in order to operate in a wider range of product markets. The key to achieving this goal was acquisition of other firms.
In addition, to acquisitions Cooper’s basic corporate growth objective...

...Case Review of
Vandelay Industries, Inc.
Table of Contents
I. Problem Statement 1
II. Background Information and Introduction of the Case 2
III. Summary of Findings 2
IV. Analysis of Alternatives 3
V. Detailed Recommendations 5
Case Review of
Vandelay Industries, Inc.
Problem Statement
Vandelay Industries, a global, multi-billion dollar corporation that manufactured industrial rubber and latex process equipment, was being ran on out-dated, fragmented, manufacturing and order fulfillment systems. Each manufacturing facility had purchased its own manufacturing resource planning (MRP) software and customized both their software programs and business processes specifically to their own plant’s needs. The diverse MRP solutions being used throughout the company were then integrated as best as they could be into the corporate financial systems but that was the extent of information systems compatibility throughout Vandelay. As market conditions changed drastically in the 1980’s new, cheaper competitors emerged in the industry and forced Vandelay executive management to realize that they had to seek more efficient, streamlined, manufacturing systems and processes to be able to drive down costs and price their products more competitively to survive. The company decided to purchase SAP R/3 Enterprise...

...CaseAnalysis: Harley- Davidson Inc.
This case study analyzes the differentiation strategy adopted by Harley-Davidson Inc. to differentiate itself from the competition. Further, it will address the issues and challenges faced by Harley- Davidson Inc. due to changing demographics and financial turmoil. And last but not least the case study will give an idea of what strategies Harley- Davidson Inc. could apply in the future so that it could sustain and enhance its competitive position.
There are two generic business level strategies to yield a higher rate of profit over a rival according to M. Porter. First, a firm can focus on cost leadership, which generates economic value by having lower costs than competitors. Second, a firm can focus on product differentiation and generates economic value by offering a product that customers prefer over the products of competitors. In other words the firm provides something unique that is valuable to buyers beyond offering the product at a low price.
Harley-Davidson Inc. does not focus on cost leadership, but on product differentiation. Its tangible dimensions of differentiation are among other things its classic style that had characterized Harleys since its early years, the ability to personalize the motorcycle according to one's taste, the super-heavyweight cruiser bikes it sells and the wide...